The Stage

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Published Friday 16 March 2007 at 17:10 by Katie Phillips

India is a diverse, multi-faceted nation with no less than 15 official languages. It seems fitting then, that Tim Supple’s production of the most frequently performed Shakespeare play of South East Asia, born of Adishakti, Pondicherry, should be performed from a polyglot script combining English, Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Sanskrit. Actors, dancers and musicians come from all over India, trained in their country’s theatrical classical and folk traditions.

Languages overlap in a cacophony of voices. It takes a while to adjust and focus on the tone, physical direction, character interaction and facial expression, which make the action feasible.

This is a clever ploy of Supple’s to make sure his audience concentrates on other aspects of the play - the music building suspense, the symbolism of the set, the lighting changing both scene and atmosphere.

A strong, energetic and spirited cast bring a breath of astonishing vitality to the play. They have created characters and events with rich humour and rollicking comedy as well as sensitive interpretation of the ironies and irrationality of love - although some fill the cavernous space of the Roundhouse more than others.

Archana Ramaswamy convinces as fiery Titania alongside a regal P R Jijoy as Oberon, and Ajay Kumar makes a memorable Puck - a side-burned spirit bringing a subtle mix of mischievous comedy combined with serious loyalty to his master. Joyraj Bhattacharya as Francis Flute comes into his own in the labourer’s wedding play-within-a-play, but it is Joy Fernandes as Bottom who really steals the show with his hilarious overacting for the rehearsal scene and the ludicrous interlude when he is transformed into an ass.

The action is played out in front of a high reaching wall of paper mounted on scaffolding, which begins pristine white and ends in tatters, ripped bare during the interval to reveal a bamboo lattice on which the cast climb, swing from and dive through. A white silk floor is torn away post-character introductions to reveal hard, red earth.

In this realm of illusion, logic and reality are suspended for the most part, as is beautiful Titania, who spends a fair amount of time cocooned in a pod of lycra, hanging above centre stage.

The fusion in Suman Jayakrishnan’s costumes is as striking as the multi-lingual translation. Bright silks of topaz, magenta, emerald, burnt orange, deep red make up traditional robes, saris and kurta with a contemporary edge.

Shakespeare is clearly translatable across boundaries of language and culture. Here, the fantasy and imagination of the play seem even more strange and delightful as our senses are heightened towards the visuals which adequately conjure up the pungent atmosphere and mysterious magic that pervades these dreamy reveries.

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